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Lou Diamond Phillips
Lou Diamond Phillips guest stars as Officer Danny Ferguson in the fourth season of Southland. Phillips is an American film, television, and stage actor and director. His breakthrough came when he starred in the film La Bamba. He earned a supporting actor Golden Globe Award nomination for his role in Stand and Deliver and a Tony Award nomination for his role in The King and I. Other notable films in which Phillips has starred include Courage Under Fire, Che, and Love Takes Wing. Outside of acting, he has notably finished 186th in the 2009 World Series of Poker World Championships "No Limit Texas hold 'em" main event. Early life and education Phillips was born as Lou Diamond Upchurch at the Subic Bay U.S. Naval Station in Zambales, Philippines, the son of Lucita Aranas and Gerald Upchurch, an officer in the United States Navy. His father was an American of Scots-Irish and one-quarter Cherokee descent, and his mother, a native of Candelaria, is a Filipina of Spanish, Chinese, Hawaiian and Japanese descent. Phillips was named after Marine legend Lou Diamond. He was adopted by his stepfather and took his surname "Phillips". He was raised in Texas, where he attended Flour Bluff High School in Corpus Christi graduating in 1980. He graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a BFA in Drama. Career The first low-budget film in which he starred was called Trespasses. Phillips' big break came with the starring role in 1987's La Bamba, in which he played early rocker Ritchie Valens. Prior to his cinematic breakthrough, he starred in the Miami Vice episode "Red Tape" (13 Mar 1987), portraying detective Bobby Diaz. In 1988, Phillips co-starred with Edward James Olmos in the inner-city high school drama Stand and Deliver, in a role for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture". He plays Angel Guzman, a cholo gangster who is inspired by his math teacher, Jaime Escalante, to excel at calculus. Working to master the subject, he develops a friendship with his teacher. Stand and Deliver was filmed before La Bamba, but it was released a year later. In 1988 and 1990, Phillips co-starred with Emilio Estevez and Kiefer Sutherland in the cowboy movies Young Guns and Young Guns II, in which he plays Jose Chavez y Chavez, a historical Old West outlaw. In 1996, Phillips made his Broadway debut as the King in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's The King and I. Phillips won a Theatre World Award and was nominated for both a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance. In 1998 he starred as Cisco, the counterpart of the main character Melvin Smiley (played by Mark Wahlberg), in the comedy-action movie The Big Hit. On September 11, 2007, Phillips joined the touring troup for Lerner and Loewe's Camelot in the role of King Arthur. He also played a role in the first season of the TV series 24 as secret government agent Mark DeSalvo, opposite former Young Guns star Kiefer Sutherland. Phillips played the recurring role of FBI agent Ian Edgerton in the television series Numb3rs. Edgerton is an FBI tracker and sniper who works as an instructor at Quantico FBI Academy when he is not working a case in the field. Phillips won the second season of the NBC reality series, I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here!, over pro-wrestler Torrie Wilson. Lou currently hosts the weekly series An Officer and a Movie on The Military Channel. This series features a World War II drama such as Kelly's Heroes, with Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland and Telly Savalas. Phillips had a recurring role as Colonel Telford in the Stargate Universe television series during its two-season run on the SyFy channel 2009-2011. He played the would-be commander of the Destiny expedition, who is left behind when an accident launches an unsuspecting crew into deep space. The commander works from Earth to bring the crew home. Phillips has been a regular poker player since college. In May 2009, Phillips placed 31st of 403 entrants in the 2009 California State Poker Championship Limit Texas hold 'em. He placed in the money at the $10,000 July 2009 World Series of Poker World Championship No Limit main event. On July 12, he was eliminated as the original field of 6,494 was trimmed from 407 to 185. He entered the day in 114th place among the 407 and was eliminated on the final hand of the day finishing in 186th place and earning $36,626. In January 2012, he will be one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off.